Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT (Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith) - UNIVERSAL
Jay & Silent Bob Reboot sees director Kevin Smith return to his ‘View Askewniverse’ of movies, which began with the cult classic Clerks and spanned six movies with the last film Clerks II seemingly being the final chapter to the universe. However several films later — none of which received commercial or critical acclaim — and a near-fatal and life-changing heart attack in 2018, Smith returns to the world that kick-started his career back in the '90s with a mostly successful seventh instalment.
Smith's latest sees Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) travelling to Hollywood to stop the reboot of the ‘Bluntman & Chronic’ movie that they attempted to stop back in 2001s Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. The primary method of humour in Smith's film relies solely on the viewer having seen all of the other ‘View Askewniverse’ films because the jokes, references and observations are nearly all linked to the previous works. Luckily, these are mostly all cleverly implemented and satisfying for those that are fans of Smith. There is still plenty of slapstick, cursing and dick joke centric fun to be had even if the viewer has not seen those other films. That being said, those callbacks and characters are the main draws here as the other jokes do become repetitive and, at their worse, instantly outdated.
JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT - UNIVERSAL
The title duo themselves feel exactly as they did those many years ago. Jason Mewes delivers a surprisingly impressive emotional performance with a decent character arc. Due to his and Smith’s real-life friendship, his chemistry with Harley-Quinn Smith — who plays his daughter — is notably believable. The cast of cameos for Jay & Silent Bob Reboot is an impressive one, with notable names such as Chris Hemsworth, Val Kilmer, Melissa Benoist and Chris Jericho all showing up to have fun. Seeing Jason Lee, Brian O’Halloran, Matt Damon and much more return to their roles from the previous films is a treat for fans. However, the most impactful of these is Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams in possibly the film’s best scene and shows Smith’s dramatic and emotional writing abilities that he is capable of creating.
What lets Smith's film down is its narrative structure and plot pacing. Some scenes and jokes go on far too long and in contradiction to that, there are some very rushed sequences and time jumps with no real explanation. The plot will also meander and divert into sections which feel out of place and do not bring anything more to the story or to further the plot. The film’s final ‘action sequence’ is not something Smith would usually shoot and it shows with quick cutting and low lighting making it difficult to follow. Lastly, the soundtrack of the film is hit or miss, with the old themes of the previous films being very welcome but the new song choices being unfitting to certain scenes and honestly distracting due to louder mixing.
Jay & Silent Bob Reboot is Smith revisiting and relishing the 90’s and early-00’s when he was on top of his game and from a character and dialogue perspective, this all works well. Nonetheless, it is a shame that the jokes wear very thin, and the story pacing and structure needs focus but undeniably there is still much fun to be had.
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is released October 15th and November 27th in the U.S. and U.K.
